Earlier this year the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation (KSLOF) and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF) entered into a formal partnership to help save corals in the South Pacific region. Founded in 1999, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation focuses on funding scientific research, implementing conservation initiatives, and raising public awareness about the importance of the reef and the threats it faces. Its work covers a wide range of areas, including coral reef monitoring, coral restoration, water quality improvement, sustainable fishing practices, and climate change resilience.
Both KSLOF and GBRF are active participants in the United Nations Ocean Decade, with two endorsed projects focusing on low-cost tools and solutions for coral reef conservation and restoration. Using a co-design approach both foundations will be working together towards community engagement to build capacity for sustained conservation efforts. KSLOF’s Science Without Borders®: Conserving the Tropics project is aimed at improving the monitoring and management of coral reefs, seagrass meadows, and mangrove forests. The first pilot study was conducted in Beqa Lagoon, Fiji. GBRF’s Resilient Reefs Initiative (RRI) focuses on partnering coral reef dependent communities to respond to climate change local threats. To date the RRI project has launched in Palau, Ningaloo Coast, and New Caledonia. Both projects are quite complementary and the synergies between KSLOF and GBRF are strong.
KSLOF and GBRF sit on the United Nations Ocean Decade working group in the South Pacific and partnered a session on coral reef managements at the Pacific Islands Conference on Science and Ocean Management (PICOSOM, September 2023).
KSLOF and GBRF have identified the South Pacific region as a key area of focus and one in which a collaborative approach and information sharing would be beneficial. We very much look forward to this new partnership and future joint conservation efforts to protect coral reefs while elevating the voices of communities who depend on them.
